At 26 years of age, Luigi Mangione may well be on his way to becoming immortalized as a controversial folk hero, a curious phenomenon considering all evidence suggests he just executed someone in Manhattan.
If we look at popular media and literature, he’s perceived by some as a Robin Hood-esque sort of personality; or, perhaps a better comparison, similar to V in V for Vendetta – even his get-up was the focus of a look-alike competition, an event that could be considered vaguely reminiscent of when protesters wore Guy Fawkes’ masks as a symbol of the hacktivist group Anonymous.
But it’s important to remember that, away from the social media buzz and debates about morality, are people directly impacted by this crime. The family of the deceased, of course, but also the family of the alleged perpetrator, must be going through something unimaginable for the average person.
Who is the Mangione Family?
Luigi Mangione belongs to what could be considered, in comparison to the average working middle-class household, a wealthy, affluent family from Baltimore, Maryland, whose ascendents had their roots in the island of Sicily, Italy.
In the 1970s, the alleged shooter’s grandparents, Nick Mangione St. and Mary C. Mangione (the latter of whom died in 2023 of Parkinson’s disease), bought a country club in Ellicott City, endeavoring then to develop the golfing community. A decade later, the Magiones purchased another country club, this time in Hunt Valley. In the 1980s, the family inaugurated the nursing home business Lorien Health Services. According to The New York Times, “The family’s wealth and work with charity made it well known in Baltimore.”
Louis Mangione, Luigi’s father, became the nursing home company’s owner. In addition, the family is behind the politically conservative radio station WCBM. Antonino “Nino” Mangione, a cousin who shared the family’s understandably succinct comment on the case on his X account, has been a Republican member of the Maryland House of Delegates since January 2019.
Until six months ago, Luigi had been in contact with friends and family until the Ivy League graduate, essentially and out of nowhere, went AWOL and began ghosting those in his social circle. At that time, he had been suffering from the result of a back injury and subsequent surgical intervention – his Goodreads profile showed he had procured and read books on the subject.
The TNY article remarks on how family and friends were unaware that Luigi could be capable of such an extreme criminal act, and when one dives deeper into his background and social media activity, one may start to infer why those who knew Luigi best could react with nothing but shock at this turn of events that will certainly upend their lives for years to come.